


Solitary is Stupid

by captainmycatisthedevil



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Friendship, Gen, Pack Feels, Panic Attacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-15
Updated: 2015-04-15
Packaged: 2018-03-23 01:20:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3749656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainmycatisthedevil/pseuds/captainmycatisthedevil
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erica is gone, Derek is a douchenozzle, and Isaac has taken up with Scott McCall. Boyd is alone.  Or at least he thought he was until Stiles flops, pokes, and rambles his way into Boyd's life. Boyd used to think he was the only one who no one saw, who no one noticed. Then Erica came into his life.  When she left he was solitary again.  But maybe Boyd isn't the only one who needs a pack, and maybe with some time, and a little bit of patience, Boyd doesn't need to eat alone at lunch anymore.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Solitary is Stupid

They were opposites: Stiles was loud, emotive, constantly moving.  Boyd was quiet, stoic, still.  Yet here they were, standing in the middle of the cafeteria, nowhere to go. Scott was in the corner with Isaac, heads bent together.  Lydia was sitting with Danny and other lacrosse players, safe back in the arms of her clueless social group. Allison didn’t eat lunch in the cafeteria anymore. Ever since she ‘reformed’ from her psycho hunter ways, she avoided the pack like the plague.

 

Erica’s gone. When Chris Argent released her and Boyd from the Argent’s basement, Erica took her chance and ran. For some reason, Boyd stayed. He doesn’t know why, really. Some kind of loyalty to Derek maybe. Fear, probably. Boyd looks at Scott and Isaac and doesn’t feel anything.  Isaac chose his allegiance.  He wasn’t there when Gerard Argent took them.  He wasn’t there when the electricity was running through his veins, Erica’s fear filling his nose, and the sound of Gerard Argent beating the shit out of Stiles in his ears.

 

Boyd sees an empty table. Might as well sit there. Five hours left until work, and then training at Derek’s.  He wonders if his mom will be home from work in time for dinner tonight.  Boyd pulls out a book, _As I Lay Dying_ , and begins to read.  He may as well do his english homework.

 

There’s a _clang_ as someone plops a lunch tray across from Boyd. He doesn’t look up. He’s been alone his whole life, why would anything change now.

 

“Dude. Dude, my mom was a fish too!”  Boyd looks up and sees Stiles chortling at his own joke.  Stiles is sitting across from him.  Stuffing his face with French fries.  Still chattering.

 

“-Cause I don’t get the part about the gramophone, or whatever that thing is called, and the part about Cash’s leg is super gross.  I liked the chapter about the mom-“

 

Boyd tunes him out again and goes back to the book.  Stiles is almost like a walking, talking, book report, but with all of the sentences scrambled.

 

“-And then I was thinking, is Darl God? What is he supposed to represent? Stream of consciousness, ubiquitous narrator, good stuff.  Now, who would narrate the story of my life, cause I was thinking-“

 

“Stiles, why are you here?” That shuts him up. He looks down at his plate and fiddles with his carrot sticks.  Boyd can still see the faintest shadows of the damage Gerard Argent caused. He shudders.

 

“You said you were alone.” Boyd blinks, and looks Stiles in the eyes.  This is perhaps the most serious Boyd has ever seen him.

 

“You said that now Erica’s gone, you were alone.  But that’s not true.  You have Derek. And your mom.  And me”. 

 

Boyd stills. He remembers saying that. The loss of Erica was fresh, and Stiles was prodding, and poking, and _relentless_. Boyd was done.  Erica was the first person to truly see him for who his, and suddenly she was gone.

 

Boyd looks up and Stiles has him pinned with a calculating scare. Boyd looks over at Scott, arm slung around Isaac. Lydia flips her hair and flirts with her admiring populace. And Boyd realizes something.

 

“You too.” Stiles visibly startles. “You’re not alone either”. Stiles smiles, a true smile that very few people have seen, and continues to ramble about their English assignment. Boyd lets the sound wash over him, and continues to eat his lunch. Halfway through, Stiles presses his ankle against Boyd’s, and Boyd decides it’s nice. It’s nice not to always be alone.

 

….

 

Boyd gets used to Stiles. Everywhere he goes Stilinski shows up. If he’s studying in the library, Stiles flops down next to him, and pretty soon books and pens are spread all over the table, and Boyd can feel Stiles vibrating against him.

 

They go places together. Stiles will text him _Friday. 9pm._  Then he will show up at the ice rink after work and they’ll go see movies, go to the arcade, get pizza, and end up playing videogames in the Stilinski house while the sheriff is out on the night shift. 

 

Around midnight Boyd will get up to go home, and he’ll feel Stiles hesitate.  He knows Stiles is alone in his house, but they’re not there yet. Stiles will send him on his way with a fist bump, and Boyd will head to Derek’s. The apartment will be dark when he gets there, Derek out on a run, so Boyd will sit on the couch and turn on the TV.  When Derek gets back in, he will turn the TV off and throw a blanket over a sleeping Boyd. Things are… okay. Conversations with Derek are stilted, but on the last full moon Derek had grunted “your control’s getting better. Good work.”  Boyd can scent more complicated emotions, and he no longer feels the wolf pressing at the corners of his mind when he thinks of Erica.

 

….

 

Boyd had just fallen asleep on Derek’s couch when his phone starts to ring.  Stiles had changed the tone, and Boyd wakes to the sound of Tracy Jordan singing _Werewolf Bar Mitzvah_.

 

“…H’lo?” Boyd mumbles into the phone.  All he can hear is panicked breath on the other end.  He pulls the phone back, and looks at the caller ID.

 

“Stiles?? Stiles, are you okay?”  A hitched breath.

 

“…Boyd? Oh god, Boyd, I’m in the basement and Erica is dead and he won’t stop hitting me and I can’t, I can’t do this anymore!! Scott won’t come.  I’m gonna drown Boyd, and the phone rings, and it _rings,_ and I-“ There’s a strangled cry, and Boyd knows that Stiles isn’t breathing. 

 

The door slams and Derek barrels in, “What’s wrong?? What’s happening??”  Boyd shushes him.

 

“Shhh, Stiles, breathe. Breathe with me.  Listen to me breathe and copy it.  In, and out. Breathe with me Stiles. In and out.” Boyd breathes until Stiles is matching him, and they sit there for a minute.

 

“Okay?” Boyd asks.

 

“Yeah. Thanks, Boyd. I’m okay. I’ll text you tomorrow. Goodnight.”  Stiles hangs up, and Boyd sits there for a minute. Derek sits down next to him, and puts a hand on his shoulder.

 

“Did he have a nightmare?” Boyd nods.  “Why was he talking about the basement? I thought that you and Erica were the only ones down there.”

 

Boyd sighs. This night haunts his dreams too. “It wasn’t just Erica and I. When we were tied to the wall, he threw Stiles down the stairs.  Took him to send a message to Scott.  Never got there.  Gerard beat him, and dropped him on Scott’s lawn, but he walked home before Scott saw him. Then Chris let us go.” A growl fills the room, and Boyd looks over to see Derek’s eyes glow red.

 

“Stiles is pack,” Boyd says. It’s not a question.   Derek nods roughly.

 

They both get up, and take the Camaro to the Stilinski house.  Derek will sit up in the kitchen, keeping vigil.  Boyd climbs to Stiles’ room, grabbing a pillow and blanket, and gets comfortable on the floor.  This is what you do for pack.  He hopes one day Scott pulls his head out of his ass and realizes what he’s forgotten. He hopes Isaac finds what he needs in Scott. He knows that he has his alpha, for better or for worse, and that finally he’s not alone.  Stiles starts mumbling about the collapse of the honeybees, and Boyd fights a smile. This is good.

 

 


End file.
